Saturday, October 2

Radha & Krishna is my Ishta-deva

Who are Radha-Krishna?

The word "Krishna" means "the one who attracts all". So, Krishna is that aspect of God that represents all bliss (Ananda) in the universe. In His fullness He lends joy.

He is also known by other names, such as Venkateshwara, Srinivasa, Panduranga, Vittala, Vasudeva, Hari, Kesava, Purusottama, Narayana and Badrinarayana

Krishna and Radha

The sky blue color (Shyam varna) of Krishna's appearance signifies His infiniteness. Krishna is the embodiment of intellectual and spiritual glory. When God is invoked as Krishna, devotees are blessed with joy and knowledge.

Radha is Krishna's mystic or divine lover who yearns to be close to Him. She symbolizes the human desire, which is to unite with God.

The sound of Krishna's flute represents the call of the divine for the individual souls. By having intense devotion to Krishna (God), the emotional life of a man is fulfilled in all its richness and lifted onto the plane of the spiritual life. As is the case in all real love, the individual forgets himself utterly and entirely; only the object of love-- the divine Krishna (God) -- the inner Self of man, remains

The village-maids' (gopis') love for Krishna signifies the ethereal love or attraction between the individual soul and the Supreme soul (paramatma). The dance of the village-maids and Krishna (Rasa Leela) signifies the union of the human and Divine, the dance of the souls. In the forest, the village-maids dance with Krishna and are absorbed in their love for Him. This illustrates that when an individual soul responds to the call of the Divine, the soul enjoys union with God and becomes absorbed in the divine ecstasy.

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